Quote #2

I was a painfully shy, awkward kid, with low self-esteem and almost no social skills. (2.19)

This could be Halliday talking, but it's actually Wade. Just as Halliday transformed himself into the all-powerful wizard Anorak with the magic of the OASIS, Wade becomes Parzival online, using a knight of the round table as the basis for his new, heroic identity. Wishful thinking?

Quote #3

I couldn't bear the idea that [Art3mis] might actually be some middle-aged dude named Chuck with back hair and male-pattern baldness. (2.43)

Here's another downside of that anonymity thing: people might not be who they say there are, which means you might wind up smitten with an old bald guy you thought was a hottie with a body. We wonder what Wade's reaction would have been if Art3mis ended up being exactly what he had feared. Would they have become friends, at least?